Secrecy and Security News

October 2002

DoD Releases Five Project 112 Fact Sheets, DoD press release, October 31. "The Department of Defense today released five new detailed fact sheets on Cold War-era chemical and biological warfare tests conducted in support of Project 112."

Post-Cold War American Spy Older, More Diverse, by Tabassum Zakaria, Reuters, October 29. "Selling U.S. secrets to foreign governments is no longer the domain of young white men, as diversity infiltrates the post-Cold War espionage game."

Ashcroft Plans Stiff Punishment for Those Who Leak Secrets, by David Savage, Los Angeles Times, October 24. "Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft said Wednesday he plans a new and more aggressive effort to punish those who leak national security secrets, but he told Congress he does not need new legislation to do so."

President's Statement on the 2003 Defense Appropriations Act, signing statement, October 23. "The U.S. Supreme Court has stated that the President's authority to classify and control access to information bearing on national security flows from the Constitution and does not depend upon a legislative grant of authority."

NIPC loses one of its own to 'Beltway' sniper, by Dan Verton, Computerworld, October 16. "Pentagon officials said yesterday that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld had approved a request from the FBI for surveillance support in the form of a U.S. Army intelligence-gathering aircraft."

DNFSB Warns of Shortage of Nuclear Personnel, Federal Register, October 10. "The weapons laboratories have not taken adequate steps to ensure that experienced staff members who can employ their specialized knowledge are readily available to the defense nuclear complex."

Scientists Give the Lie to Polygraph Testing, by Charles Piller, Los Angeles Times, October 9. "Polygraph testing for national security screening is little more than junk science, according to a long-awaited report released Tuesday by the National Academy of Sciences."

Central Intelligence Test, The Washington Post, October 2. "Ever since 1995, Steven Aftergood has been pushing the CIA to declassify and release the aggregate intelligence budgets from, among other years, 1947 and 1948. Why, you might ask, would spending figures from a half-century ago, when the agency was in its cradle, still be sensitive?"

Chill on the Hill, by Russ Baker, The Nation, October 14. "The intelligence oversight process certainly has its 'moments' (one of which is right now), but its overall performance seems designed to protect a dinosaur."